Historical Aspects of Medical Defense Against Chemical Warfare

HISTORICAL ASPECTS OF MEDICAL DEFENSE AGAINST CHEMICAL WARFARE 

In discussing the history of the use of any new weapon and the medical response to it, one must also describe the context of the weapon its scientific, social, and political aspects. For chemical warfare, there is the particular idea that chemical weapons are inhumane and immoral. Medical people, who treat the wounded, may well believe that all weapons are inhumane. Nevertheless, even the 

In Thucydides s History of the Peloponnesian War, the 4th-century bc war between Athens and Sparta, we find the earliest description of chemical warfare. Thucydides describes how the Athenians were defending a fort at Delium in 423 bc, when the allies of Sparta attacked  

The smoke made it untenable for the defenders who left and fled, and the fort was taken.2(p262) 

In ad 660, some thousand years later, a man named Kalinkos, who was either a Greek architect or a Syrian alchemist, invented Greek fire. The actual formula is lost, but it probably consisted of resin, pitch, sulfur, naphtha, lime, and saltpeter. Greek fire was an excellent naval weapon because it would float on water and set fire to the wooden ships of the era.3 

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Joy, R.J. (1997). Historical aspects of medical defense against chemical warfare. Textbook of Military Medicine. Part I, Warfare, Weaponry, and the Casualty, 87-109 [v. 3]. F.R. Sidell, E.T. Takafuji, D.R. Franz. Washington, DC. 

Joy, R.J.T., Historical aspects of medical defense against chemical warfare, in Textbook of Military Medicine—Medical Aspects of Chemical and Biological Warfare, Zajtchuk, R. and Bellamy, R.R, Eds., Office of The Snrgeon General, Department of the Army, Washington, DC, 1997, chap. 3. 

This chapter focuses primarily on the development of chemical and biological weapons and countermeasures to them, thus setting the stage for Chapter 3, Historical Aspects of Medical Defense Against Chemical Warfare, which concentrates on medical aspects of chemical warfare. To avoid excessive duplication of material, protective equipment of the modern era is illustrated in Chapter 16, Chemical Defense Equipment.—Eds.]... 

Historical Aspects of Medical Defense Against Chemical Warfare... 

This chapter was based on Dr. Joy s lecture, Historical Aspects of Medical Defense Against Chemical Warfare." The figure legends were provided by the textbook editors.)... 

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